General Terms of Engagement

BlockBooks is the trading name of BlockBooks Accounting Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (number 10742413). Our registered office is 167-169 Great Portland Street, London, England, W1W 5PF. Our VAT number is GB301116082. Contact us at [email protected].

We are a firm of Chartered Accountants regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), which also supervises our anti-money laundering compliance. We comply with applicable ICAS rules, regulations and the ICAS Code of Ethics, and with Professional Conduct in Relation to Taxation (PCRT) when undertaking UK tax work. These professional requirements are available at www.icas.com.

Our professional indemnity insurer is Hiscox Insurance Company Limited, 22 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4BQ, United Kingdom. Cover applies worldwide, except for claims brought in the courts of the United States of America or Canada. Further details are available on request from [email protected].

These general terms apply to the accounting, tax and advisory services we agree to provide. Your contract comprises the Engagement Details (identifying the client, services, periods, fees and any specific arrangements), the service schedules expressly selected for your work, and this version of the general terms. A service appearing on our website is not included unless we have agreed it with you in writing.

If provisions conflict, the Engagement Details take precedence over the selected service schedules, and those schedules take precedence over these general terms. No provision overrides our legal or professional duties or your statutory rights. Additional or different services, periods or fees require a written variation agreed with you.

We act only for the person or entity named as our client. Acting for a company, partnership, director, shareholder or family member does not make any related person our client. Anyone agreeing for an organisation must have authority to bind it.

The engagement begins when you expressly accept our written offer for defined services and fees. Creating an account accepts the terms applicable to its use but does not by itself commission paid services. Identity checks, agreed payment arrangements and any relevant cancellation period must be addressed before work starts.

Unless an ongoing service is expressly agreed, each engagement covers only the stated work and periods and ends when its deliverables are completed. There is no automatic appointment for later years. Publishing a new version of these terms does not change the contract you accepted.

We will perform the agreed services with reasonable skill, care and diligence, using appropriately competent people and exercising professional judgement. Our work is not an audit or assurance engagement unless expressly agreed under a separate suitable engagement.

We will explain material assumptions, uncertainties, limitations and differences from HMRC's published view that affect our advice or calculations. We cannot guarantee an outcome, tax saving, refund or acceptance by HMRC. Advice reflects the relevant law and circumstances when given; continuing review or updating is included only where expressly agreed.

We may rely on records and explanations you or your authorised advisers provide without independently authenticating every item. We will consider apparent inconsistencies or omissions and make reasonable enquiries relevant to the agreed work. This does not relieve us of our duty to exercise reasonable care.

Investment advice, custody or movement of client assets, audit, insolvency, legal services and representation in disputes are excluded unless separately agreed and within our competence and any necessary authorisation. Our ICAS status does not imply that we are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

We follow the PCRT Standards for Tax Planning. Our advice will be specific to your circumstances and based on a credible view of the law, and will not depend for its effectiveness on HMRC having less than the full facts. We will not create, encourage or promote arrangements that set out to achieve results contrary to the clear intention of Parliament, or that are highly artificial or contrived and seek to exploit shortcomings in the legislation. If you ask us to act in a way that conflicts with these standards, we may decline.

You must supply complete, accurate and timely information, keep your own original records, answer reasonable questions, tell us about relevant changes and promptly forward relevant communications from HMRC or other authorities. Tell us if any information is estimated, incomplete or obtained from another person.

You must review our work and any proposed filing, disclose errors or omissions you identify and give approval in time for submission. You remain legally responsible for your tax affairs and for paying tax, interest and penalties. Appointing us does not transfer those responsibilities.

We will agree the relevant information and completion dates with you. We will tell you if late or missing information, unresolved questions or delayed approval put a deadline at risk. We are responsible for the tasks we expressly accept; you or another appointed adviser remain responsible for tasks outside that scope.

If we discover a possible error in your tax affairs we will discuss it with you, explain appropriate corrective action and seek the necessary authority. We cannot knowingly submit misleading information or continue to assist tax evasion. If you refuse to correct an error, we may be required to cease acting under our professional obligations. Disclosure without your consent will occur only where there is a legal or professional right or duty to disclose.

We will confirm our fee or its calculation basis in writing, including the services and periods covered. Client-specific agreements show amounts in pounds sterling including VAT unless explicitly stated otherwise. Tax, interest and penalties payable to HMRC are additional to our fees and are paid by you directly.

A fixed fee covers the agreed scope and assumptions. If additional records, complexity or services require a fee change, we will explain the proposed change and obtain your agreement before undertaking the additional chargeable work. An estimate is not a fixed fee; we will tell you promptly if it is likely to be materially exceeded.

Invoices are payable on presentation unless the Engagement Details state a different arrangement. Where an advance payment is agreed, we may require it before starting. If you query a fee we will explain how it was calculated.

We may suspend work for overdue payment after giving reasonable notice, explaining the consequences for outstanding work and deadlines. We will not withhold your own records because a fee is outstanding.

We must comply with applicable money laundering, terrorist financing, proliferation financing and sanctions requirements. We may verify identity and beneficial ownership, understand the purpose of the engagement, check the source of funds or wealth, and conduct ongoing risk monitoring. We may require further evidence at any time.

If we cannot complete the required checks, or acting would breach legal or professional obligations, we may decline, delay, suspend or terminate the work. Our risk policy may prevent us acting where funds or transaction history have been deliberately obscured, including through mixers or tumblers.

We may be required to report knowledge or suspicion of money laundering to the appropriate authority and may be prohibited from telling you that a report has been made or that work has been delayed for that reason. These duties apply alongside the relevant statutory protections and exceptions and take precedence over contractual confidentiality.

We keep information obtained in the engagement confidential, including after it ends. We disclose it with your authority or where a legal or professional right or duty permits or requires disclosure. Permitted recipients may include ICAS and its reviewers, other competent regulators, our professional advisers and insurers, with disclosure limited to what is appropriate.

Our files may be inspected as part of ICAS practice monitoring or other authorised regulatory review. We may use suitably qualified staff or subcontractors subject to confidentiality, data protection and appropriate supervision; we remain responsible for the services we undertake.

We assess conflicts of interest and will explain any relevant conflict that can properly be disclosed. Where required we will seek informed consent and apply safeguards. We may decline or cease work where the conflict cannot be appropriately managed.

If a referral or third-party arrangement gives rise to a commission or other benefit relating to your work, we will disclose it and obtain your consent before retaining it.

We act as an independent data controller for the personal information processed in providing professional services. Our Privacy Policy at /privacy explains the purposes and lawful bases, recipients, safeguards, retention and your data protection rights.

You must have a lawful basis to share third-party personal information with us and provide any required notices. We apply appropriate technical and organisational safeguards and, where needed, safeguards for international transfers.

You retain ownership of your original records. Our working papers remain ours, subject to your statutory access rights and applicable professional duties. You must keep records for the applicable tax and legal retention periods; our file is not a substitute for your own records.

We retain engagement and compliance records for as long as their legal, regulatory and professional purposes require, then securely delete or anonymise them.

We may communicate and deliver work electronically through email and the client portal. Tell us if you require an accessible or alternative format. We will take reasonable care over security and reliability and ask you to protect your devices and account access.

We may use software, data services and automated tools to support our work. Professional judgement and responsibility remain with us.

Do not send us wallet private keys, seed phrases, Government Gateway or GOV.UK One Login credentials. We will use appropriate authorisation processes and read-only access where relevant. Verify any unexpected change to payment instructions through a trusted contact channel.

Our advice and deliverables are for the named client and the agreed purpose. You may provide them to HMRC and your appointed accountant or adviser for that purpose. No other person may rely on them without our written agreement, and we accept no duty to a third party solely because they receive a copy.

Subject to clause 10.3, our total liability to you for all claims arising from the same act or omission, or from a series of connected acts or omissions, whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, is limited to £1,000,000. A different limit may be agreed in the Engagement Details.

Nothing in this agreement excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, fraud, fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other liability that cannot lawfully be limited. It does not restrict a consumer's statutory rights or remedies, including the right to services performed with reasonable care and skill.

We are not responsible for losses caused by materially incomplete or inaccurate information, unauthorised changes to our work, reliance outside the agreed purpose, or the act or omission of another adviser, except to the extent that our breach of duty contributed to the loss. You must take reasonable steps to avoid or reduce loss.

We maintain practice continuity arrangements for serious disruption or the incapacity or death of key personnel. An appropriate alternate may access relevant records under confidentiality safeguards to arrange an orderly handover.

Either party may end the engagement by written notice. We will normally give reasonable notice, but may cease immediately if necessary to comply with legal or professional obligations, including where we cannot complete required identity checks or you ask us to act unlawfully.

On termination we will explain the position on incomplete work and deadlines and agree an appropriate handover, subject to law and professional duties. Fees properly due for work performed remain payable; any advance payment exceeding the amount properly due will be refunded. The consumer cancellation rights below take precedence where applicable.

If you are a consumer entering a service contract at a distance or away from our business premises and the statutory cancellation right applies, you may cancel without giving a reason within 14 days after the day the contract is concluded. To cancel, send a clear statement to [email protected] or our registered office before that period expires.

You may use this cancellation form, but do not have to: To BlockBooks Accounting Ltd, 167-169 Great Portland Street, London, England, W1W 5PF; [email protected]. I give notice that I cancel my contract for the following services: [services]. Contract agreed on: [date]. Client name: [name]. Address: [address]. Date: [date]. Signature: [only if sent on paper].

We will not start services during that period unless you expressly request it. If you request an early start and then cancel, you must pay an amount proportionate to the services supplied up to cancellation, subject to your statutory rights. You lose the cancellation right once the service has been fully performed only if you requested the early start and acknowledged that consequence.

We will reimburse any refund due without undue delay and within 14 days after being informed of cancellation, using the original payment method unless otherwise expressly agreed and without charging a refund fee. Nothing in this clause reduces any longer or additional cancellation right the law gives you.

Please raise concerns with Tim Whitehouse at [email protected] or in writing to our registered office. We will investigate fairly and promptly, explain our findings and take reasonable steps to resolve the matter. Request a copy of our complaints procedure using the same contact details.

If the matter remains unresolved, you may refer a complaint about professional conduct to ICAS. Information on making a complaint is available at https://www.icas.com/regulation-technical-resources/regulation/complaints-and-sanctions/how-to-make-a-complaint-against-an-icas-member. ICAS does not generally decide disputes about the amount of a fee or determine negligence claims.

This process does not prevent you exercising your legal rights.

The agreement is governed by the law of England and Wales, and its courts have jurisdiction, subject to any mandatory rights you have as a consumer to rely on protections or bring proceedings in the courts of the part of the UK where you live. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue to apply so far as the law permits.